Techniques of Sustainability Analysis

Description

This program is intended for junior or senior students wanting to work professionally in fields of sustainability planning and implementation, greenhouse gas monitoring and mitigation, and reduction of ecological and carbon footprints of organizations and services. We will study various indicators of sustainability, and several approaches to sustainable organizational transformation including the Natural Step, cradle to cradle design, and life cycle assessment (LCA). We will explore greenhouse gas accounting methods, and protocols for measuring carbon footprints. We will examine the fundamentals of the carbon market, of cap-and-trade strategies and of carbon offsets. Students will develop skills in using analytical techniques to help design and implement sustainability programs for agencies, businesses and organizations. We will explore several case studies, including the Evergreen campus, and students will be expected to complete a research project on an organization of their choosing.

We will employ methods of systems thinking in our work, and will connect a variety of disciplines as we forge programs to implement sustainability and greenhouse gas reduction. Students should have a solid background in using spreadsheets, and be comfortable working with complex quantitative formulas.